Pasar Baru traders complain over rents

JAKARTA (JP): Traders operating at the Pasar Baru shopping center have reported the center's management to the city council for imposing unfair rents.

Three traders claiming to represent 31 colleagues operating on the Metro pedestrian bridge in the shopping center said yesterday that the center's management, PT Yakin Wiskon, set higher fees for 'new' traders.

The management sealed off shops last month after traders refused to pay higher rents which were effective from November 1995.

Nelly, a spokesperson for the traders, said that management had imposed two different leases on traders.

Those considered to be 'new' traders were charged Rp 175 million (US$76,086) per shop for a 15 year lease: new traders were classified as those who leased their shops 13 years ago, she said.

Their leases expired last year. They refused to pay new leases and their shops were sealed off.

'Old' traders were classified as those who leased their shops when the center's bridge opened in 1990. They were charged only Rp 125 million per shop for a 15 year lease.

"This is not fair," Nelly told commission B in charge of local economic affairs. There is only a two year difference between the new and old traders.

The commission, chaired by Subagyo Partodihardjo, told the traders that it would summon the shopping center's management to settle the matter. (yns)